Ramen Noodles

I just made ramen for the first time ever and holy shit it’s fucking good!!

I’ve been wanting to do ramen for the longest time ever, I swearrrr but I always held back because I was nervous I wouldn’t get the broth right which soooo fucking critical in ramen dishes, I’m talking major key.

Some of the best restaurants in Boston right now are Ramen-only restaurants and the one fucking thing they all have in common is they all make absolutely KILLER broth.
I think I read somewhere that a couple of them even require that their broth sit overnight.

That’s nuts, right?

So like every time I thought about making ramen, I would get hung up on the broth because the authentic shit always seemed way too complicated and really, ain’t nobody got time for that.

Christ, the whole point of ramen is immediate comfort and satisfaction. I’m not waiting all night for that, nah fuck that.

But this past Saturday it was a little cold and a little cloudy and a little windy and my mind wandered back to ramen again and I finally just said, fuck it I’m doing this.

I’m gonna completely wing it.

So I go down the street to the Asian grocery store on the corner of my block and grab ingredients of all the things I love in ramen…… but I sort of cheated when I got to the broth.

For the broth, I went to the soup base aisle and searched until I found ramen soup bases. Then I grabbed what looked like the top 3 soup bases and did a google comparison on each of them right there in the middle of the aisle.

I walked away with the one that had the best and most consistent reviews.

All I had to do was bring a few cups of beef stock to a boil and pour in 1 packet of this soup base.
BAM.

I head home and immediately get right to it and let me TELLLLLLLL you!Not only is ramen one of the most straightforward things to make (you sort of cook everything separately and then put it all together in the end), but the BROTH???

The broth was SENSATIONAL.

Never underestimate yourself against something you’ve never even tried. That’s like planning for failure, which is even dumber.

What I Did

If you’ve never made ramen at home before I’d probably suggest first going out somewhere to eat it. Pay attention to what you order. Take note of the ingredients in it or have the wait staff go over it with you.

Make a nice little note to yourself and then hit up an Asian grocery store and get everything you just wrote down.

The best part of Asian cooking I’ve found, is that you don’t need to have a lot of experience cooking the items because most of them already come with instructions on how to cook them on the back of their package.

So other than reading the back of the item, it’s pretty fucking straightforward.

The ramen that I made here is a very close replica of one of my favorite ramens, except I forgot the tofu but we’re talking semantics at this point, right?

I mean who’s kidding who here.

If you really decide to do this, don’t be afraid to ask for help when you’re getting the ingredients. If your store is as authentic as mine you’ll be in that bitch for hours.

Add the stock into a med pot and bring to a boil.
When the stock is boiling, pour the ramen soup base into the pot and mix well.
Taste for flavor and set aside, covered.I found that some of the packaged soup bases, while really flavorful, have a lot of sodium in them. So if you find your broth is too salty, add in more broth or water, 1/4 cup at a time, until you achieve the balance you prefer.

Prepare the dried seaweed according the instructions on its package.
Essentially add the dried wakame seaweed to a large bowl and fill with water. Let the seaweed soak in the water for 10 mins, then drain, squeezing any excess water out of the seaweed.
Set aside.

Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the package and set aside.
In another pot, soft boil the egg and let it cool for a couple mins.

Meanwhile finely slice the scallions and halve the chili peppers longwise.These are lethal objects, these peppers, so use gloves when you handle them or you inevitably regret it.
Peel and halve the boiled egg.

Reheat the broth, giving things a good mix.

Serve by distributing the cooked ramen into bowls, placing the seaweed, beef slices, peppers and the halved egg around it, and pouring large spoonfuls of your amazing broth over everything.
I chose to use red thai chili peppers here but I only slit them open longwise, I didn’t dice them up or anything.

I did it that way because the heat factor of these peppers is already ridiculous and I wanted heat from the peppers to gently seep out into the broth flavors.

Once I’d been stupid enough to try a whole one of these peppers and it nearly blew the top of my head off.
I shot this thing on Saturday and was tempted to eat the whole thing and just make it again on Sunday but I managed to restrain myself just in time.

Never ever blog on an empty stomach.

Note:
If you’re fortunate enough to have leftovers, store the cooked noodles separately from the broth.
No point in soaking up your noodles just for them to sit in the fridge. Keep them separated until you’re ready to eat. Then heat them separately and combine.

And again – all of these ingredients can be found in any Asian market and you can grab the beef slices from your local deli counter.
Or you can skip the deli and keep it vegetarian, which I almost did.

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Add the stock into a med sized pot and bring to a boil.
2. When the stock is boiling, pour in the ramen soup base and mix well. Taste for flavor and set aside.I found that some of the packaged soup bases, while really flavorful, have a lot of sodium in them. So if you find your broth is too salty, add in more broth or water, 1/4 cup at a time, until you achieve the balance you prefer.

3. Prepare the dried seaweed according the instructions on its package.Essentially add the dried seaweed to a large bowl and fill with water. Let the seaweed soak in the water for 10 mins, then drain, squeezing any excess water out of the seaweed. Set aside when done.

4. Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the package and set aside.
5. In another pot, soft boil the egg. Rinse it under cold water to cool it off.

6. Meanwhile finely slice the scallions and halve the chili peppers longwise.These are lethal objects, these peppers, so use gloves when you handle them or you inevitably regret it.
7. Peel and halve the boiled egg.
8. Reheat the broth, giving things a good stir.

9. Serve by distributing the cooked ramen into bowls, placing the seaweed, beef slices, peppers and the halved egg around it, and pouring large spoonfuls of your amazing broth over everything.
❤ ❤

It’s so funny you should say that, when I was growing up my dad always said- Biki, you don’t eat any of the healthy/good stuff/what’s good for you bla bla bla ( : Hmmmm my fav meals, well my ultimate fav is pure childhood nostalgia as my Ma used to make it every crimbo- Bolgarian Mousaka. After that, I’ll break it down into cuisines- I’m OBSESSED with Vietnamese and Thai, I love Indian food and Italian is good too…I love pancakes with sausage and breakfast veg (whatever that is), I love burgers/chips, some Nigerian food…so you see I am a fussy as fuck eater but there is a lot I looooove ( :

Wait.
You love Vietnamese and Thai food…..you’re aware both of them use eggs, seafood and THAI chili peppers….all the things you don’t like!!!
Hahaha!! You’re certainly an odd one Biki but at least you’re eating good girl ❤

Guuurl, with Viet or Thai- I just tell them to skip the eggs, e.g. Chicken Pad Thai with NO EGG PLEASE, or fried rice WITH NO EGG PLS…and I always look at the chilli pepper icon rating to see how hot the meal is and go for mild. And with both dishes I can have chicken, duck, lamb, beef, ribs…so I can skip the seafood-were there’s a will, there’s a waaaay.X

OH YEAH I KNOW ! we made some on Sunday (with broth left over for 2 additional days of just adding more fresh noodles and eating and slurping again & again) and yeah it’s really good ! But I must say, yours looks even better than ours ! xo

That is one awesome ramen dish! I’ve never attempted making ramen noodles at home, but you do make it sound easy and delicious. I wonder what is in the soup base, and whether I could find something similar over here. You made me laugh with those red peppers. Those tiny ones really are HOT. And usually even just one or two can be enough in a dish! I usually just rub my eyes or go to the bathroom after cutting one… I usually regret doing that for a while afterwards.

Oh man, now that you’ve ventured into ramen territory the inevitable next step is to make the broth from scratch. Momofuku’s broth is a great place to start–it’s not hard, but you need time to get everything right. I’ve even made ramen noodles but truthfully the dough almost broke my KitchenAid one time, so now I stick to store-bought noodles. It’s the perfect cold-weather project because it makes your home smell amazing, and you’ll have soup as leftovers for days on end afterward, and then you’ll really want to try some crazy stuff like get pig’s trotters and various smoked pork meats to throw in the pot.

RE: the dough, I think I had the mixer on one speed setting too high, and since there’s more gluten in bread dough, it just taxed the engine a lot. (Smoke was literally coming out of the back of it!) It still works, but I don’t try to put it through that torture anymore.

This looks delicious and fancy. Thou the red thai chilli peppers kinda scare me. lol Truth be told I’ve never had a real ramen dish, and I mean not the cheap noodles at the groceries store that you make after school. And now I feel like I’m missing out 😦

Oh, look at that egg – it is a thing of beauty. If you could bring perfect eggs like that I could bring some very slow cooked pig-head broth …… just saying …… it looks fabulous by the way and has made me realise I need to crack this whole egg thing

God, I take a month outta Blogdom to do some writing, get back here and the layout’s all swanky and there are MOTHER FUCKING NOODLES EVERYWHERE LOOKING DELICIOUS! God I love noodles. I cannont imagine a life without them. I’m slowly bringing my husband on board with this obsession, mostly so he’ll make the noodles for me and I can just sit and eat noodles for the rest of my life. Goals.

yasssss. this is comfort to me. a balm from the cold and from the shit show life is right now.

i’m a packaged ramen child, this was my pb&j as a kid. i didn’t graduate to homemade ramen until i was an adult but i did become adept at doctoring up instant noodles, to the point where sometimes my friends prefer my cheat versions to the authentic restaurant ramens.

tips (i won’t call them pro, cus i’m not a pro)
try different noodles, thick or thin, dried or fresh. game changers (beware: cook times vary!)
add dumplings, like wontons or shumai
in asian markets, in the freezer section you’ll see meatballs made from beef or pork or chicken, and best: seafood. throw a couple in and it’s magic.
vegs: i’ve add spinach, herbs (like mint or basil), mushrooms, baby bok choy, hot damn the sky is the limit!

if and when you decide to make the broth from scratch, it’s worth it. i promise. and any leftover broth can easily be frozen for another time use…